We believe you will want to know who you are dealing with with when you visit this site, so we'll take our time here - time enough to spin a good fisherman's tale - and tell you who we are.

Mike & Steve

Mike Pawlawski:

I believe that fly-fishing is a way of life!

Don’t get me wrong. Everybody has a different interpretation of what the sport means to them. I’m o.k. with that. I just feel most at ease with a fly rod in my hands dropping bugs on a trout’s’ nose and hoping for grab.

I find challenge and fulfillment in the beauty and difficulty of the sport. I have been a fly fisherman for 25 years. I saw a guy waving a stick in the river and catching fish when I was 9, and knew right then that fly-fishing was for me. I have pursued the sport on 3 continents and right here in the beautiful U.S. of A.

Alas I find that my local waters are my favorites, but I also find that the same techniques will catch fish all over the world.

I was fortunate enough to play professional football for 10 years. I began my professional career in Tampa with the Bucs where I was one of the clipboard holdin’est QB’s ever. From there my journey took me through the CFL where I got to do some hellacious Steelhead and Salmon (enough said about my playing time there).

Next it was off to the Arena League where I got to try out my dancing shoes for the first time since I won the Citrus Bowl and the Pac 10 offensive MVP as a QB for Cal. After a few years to figure out the game I led my team to the AFL championship in 1999. I have the great opportunity this year to go back and broadcast a few games of “Arena Ball” for NBC. I’ll tell you this, there is no more fun form of football to watch and play than Arena Football.

As you may have noticed on the home page of TroutGuys.com the fine folks at the Outdoor Channel saw fit to let me host a fly-fishing show called Familiar Waters. It has been a dream of mine to host my own show since, when I was 10 years, I watched my first bass fishing show on Lake Okeechobee. I’ve had my guide's license in the state of California off and on since 1994.

I look forward to hearing your comments about this site and our Outdoor Channel broadcasts - on our Member's Forum. (see the link in the menu top left.)

~ Mike

Steve Lawler:

Timing and Friendship.

That would probably be the best way to describe my introduction to the incredibly addicting sport of fly-fishing. The first time I held a fly rod in my hands was on a tributary to Lake Taupo in New Zealand. I will never forget the scenery of that place, as the picture is now forever engrained within my mind, along with the acrobatic display put on by some truly beautiful Rainbow trout.

Since then, I have been fortunate to have met and spent time with some of the best fly fishers anywhere. Funny thing, I never thought this sport would consume me, or even surpass the passion I had growing up hunting pheasant, quail, chucker, rabbit, and dove. I raised Beagles and Brittany’s, hunted every chance I could, and built a bond with the outdoors and its elements.

But fly-fishing, WOW!

Not too many other passions come as close, or seem to grip my every thought, year round. My “teachers” during the recent few years have been professional fly fishers, and they have shared their knowledge, experience, and love of this wonderful sport with me.

I will be forever grateful to them for taking the time and interest in me, and hope to repay them by passing on my love for fly-fishing to you.

Timing and Friendship. The right place, at the right time, with the right people. Difficult to ask for more than that.

I too look forward to reading your comments here online.

~ Steve